


Sorry for the Singing

by Drosera_Sundews



Category: Greek and Roman Mythology
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Hypnotism, Mario Kart, Mermaids, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Sirens, Yaaay :D, in modern life, mermaid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-30
Updated: 2015-11-30
Packaged: 2018-05-04 06:15:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5323619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Drosera_Sundews/pseuds/Drosera_Sundews
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: “i’m a siren and i keep accidentally forgetting that i have roommates now and and end up putting them in my thrall when i’m singing taylor swift songs in the shower”</p><p>Many would have argued that moving away from the sea when you’re a 250 lbs magical, aquatic predator wrapped in a clever disguise is a pretty poor life choice. Yet what these people also tend to forget is that magical creatures can be unreasonably stubborn. Not to mention there’s no good universities under the sea. Or any universities at all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sorry for the Singing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [coffee_grounders](https://archiveofourown.org/users/coffee_grounders/gifts).



> This story was inspired by Haimaee's mythological creature prompts http://haimaee.tumblr.com/post/117184210887/mythological-creature-aus They're really cool, seriously, check them out :D

Many would have argued that moving away from the sea when you’re a 250 lbs magical, aquatic predator wrapped in a clever disguise is a pretty poor life choice. In a small fisherman’s village where they still believe in the bogeyman and tie horseshoes to their boats for fortune no one will blink twice at spotting a large silver fin in the distance, yet in the big city, where magic is scarce and hard to spot, things are different. Not to mention my new hometown’s lack of open bodies of water was a problem. A big problem. Yet what these people also tend to forget is that magical creatures can be unreasonably stubborn. Not to mention there’s no good universities under the sea. Or any universities at all. 

Not being able to swim freely was, well, difficult. At least in the beginning. But it’s something you get used to. Something you grudgingly accept. In my first few months in my new hometown I was too busy to notice it, enthusiastically exploring my new environment. I surely liked all the clubs here, the fantastic nightlife. It turned out I was more of a city girl after all. Something I’d long expected.  
I missed my family, of course. Travel costs prevented me from seeing them in the weekends and getting a drivers licence was still out of the question. Thus I found myself showering more regularly. It was a shame we didn’t have a bath, but I made it work. And of course, on very rare occasions, when the loneliness and homesickness really got to me, I found myself dumping a bucket of water over my sheets and going to bed in scales instead of pj’s. Not before checking the lock at least seven times, of course. My roommates were great, really, but I doubted they’d be up for this. 

Roommates, that was a thing I did like about my new home. Of course with our convenient shapeshifting skills, me and my siblings had been able to go to school just like all the regular kids. No lack of social contacts at all. Yet, when you live with four sirens and a wizard, you can bet your full salary on it that your house won’t look ‘regular’. Thus apart from the sparse sleepovers at friends’ houses I’d never shared close quarters with anyone but my equally scaly and weird family. This ‘situation’ was, well, new. 

Jody and Milan turned out to be great, fortunately. Sure, Milan left his laundry everywhere and Jody had the nasty tendency to smoke in our living room/kitchen when she was really stressed, but they made up for it with their pleasant personalities. They’d known each other for over a year already before I’d been assigned to live with them and despite me not understanding all their personal jokes and in general being pretty clueless, they managed to make me feel welcome from day one. Added bonuses were that Milan was a great cook, and Jody studied agriculture, just like me, and was able to help me through some of the more difficult first years’ subjects. So yeah, save from this apartments lack of bathtubs, it was a very nice place to be.

Over the first few months I slowly got comfortable with my surroundings. I still showered more than necessary, but really, what’s to be expected from a half-siren? I need somewhere to stretch my fins.  
Shape shifting doesn’t really hurt, even though it looks like it should. Even after so many years it’s still weird to see your legs shrivel away into tiny caudal fins while your spine stretches to ridiculous length. Yet on the other hand it’s so nice to finally be me again, even though the shower really isn’t big enough to accommodate anything not standing perfectly upright, damn it.

That’s how I found myself four months after moving. Sitting awkwardly on the floor of the shower, tail all curled up to get the full length under the spray. Singing some silly pop song while washing my hair. Fun fact about sirens; we don’t actually have fins for ears. That’d be weird and impractical. Instead we have these kind of ‘holes in the side of your head’ ears. (Which seems really weird until you sternly remind yourself that humans have ears made of flesh.) But, to make up for our lack of ear fins we do have fins in several other positions, mostly on our tails (which makes sitting down an annoying and uncomfortable affair) and on our backs and lower arms. Especially those last ones tend to get in the way when we’re not swimming. They surely were a hassle right now while I was just trying to shampoo my hair. 

Despite the complications I greatly enjoyed the shower and wished I didn’t have to keep it short. But when the sun has rendered the streets to molten lava with her blazing heat you have to take your non-aquatic friends into consideration as well, and Jody had already been knocking on the door twice. 

I rounded off and all too soon emerged from the shower in large and dramatic cloud of smoke. With my hair a mess and two perfectly human legs sticking out from under my dress. Our apartment seemed even messier than usual, seriously, how many shirts did Milan even have?

“Hey Jody,” I yelled, “bathroom’s free!” 

I rounded the corner I saw her standing right in front of the window, back turned to me.

“Jody? You can use the bathroom now.”

Her lack of reply was a bit odd and atypical. It was almost as if she didn’t hear me. I walked over to her hesitantly, peeking out of the window as well but spotting nothing of interest. 

“Hey man you’re not still angry because I got to the shower before you or what?” 

That’s when I realized something was really, very wrong. 

I pushed her shoulder, turning her to face me. Her face was blank, devoid of all emotion. Her eyes were glassy, staring right through me. Her mouth hung slightly open and her breath was shallow. I jumped back in shock and she swayed on her feet. Head slowly rising until she was looking at me, but her eyes remained glassy and, empty. Empty in an intensely unnatural and very scary way. Magic. 

“Fuck, oooh no, fuck fuck fuck,” I grabbed her shoulders and shook her, “Jody, wake up! Snap out of it!” my voice a pitch or so too high. No response. 

“Oh dear, oh dear what is this?” I clapped my hands in front of her face, she didn’t even blink. 

“Milan!” I backed away, storming into the hall, “Milan! Where are you! I need... oh no.” 

Milan was standing in the hallway, staring at the wall as if it were the most interesting thing in the world. Though I knew in all actuality he probably wasn’t staring at anything but void right now. 

“Oh crabsauce, okay, okay. Magic. Some kind of spell obviously. Which is weird cause mom said I’d sense magic nearby but this town is as dull as the desert yet still my friends are bespelled or enchanted or whatever and I don’t know where it came from and there’s no one else around. Oh my god wait.” 

I warily checked Milans room before realizing that had an evil sorcerer actually passed by while I was showering he probably would have left and not hidden between Milan’s laundry.

“Shiiit,” I slid down the wall, hands over my face. “shitfuck. And there’s not even an adult I can go to!” The realisation struck me like a bold of lightning and I dashed away to my room. 

It still took about ten minutes before I’d finally found my mobile phone, fortunately, Jody and Milan weren’t worsening. There were still creepy zombie statues when I walked back to our kitchen.

“Mom?!” 

“Sarah? Sweetheart is that you? Ah it’s so great to hear your voice again, it’s been so long. Are you enjoying yourself over there? How did your exams go?”

“Mom, sorry, no time. I need your help! My friends are under some sort of spell!? They’re all silent and gazing at me as if they’re zombies. It’s super scary.” 

“Wow wow, slow down. A spell? Like magic? Oh dear, what did you do this time. Wait, your dad is yelling from across the room and... oh... ah he’s just saying hi. Hi from dad.” 

I resisted the urge to facepalm. “Mom, this is serious. It’s magic mom. My friends are under a spell, or a curse or something.” 

“Magic? Okaaay I’m giving your dad the phone now. He’s better at all of this magic stuff. But I do expect another call somewhere this week! I am your mother! I deserve to know what things you get up to in the big city.” 

“Sure mom, please just give me dad now.” 

“Hey there sweetie! How are you doing?” 

“Hi dad, I’m in a bit of trouble now. My roommates are under some spell. They’re being all silent and motionless and zombielike. It’s freaking me out.” 

“Hmm,” thank god he seemed to be taking this serious, “did you notice any other magical beings nearby.”

I signed, “You keep saying that, that I can sense them. How do you even know I can do that?” 

“Well being a magical creature yourself it’s sort of a natural skill you should have. I mean, at home you had us around you all the time but seeing your reaction I’m guessing there really is nothing else in that city of yours. Hmm, you didn’t happen to be singing a while ago?” 

The question caught me off guard, if only for a moment. “What? Is that relevant? I don’t think... maybe in the shower? I think I was singing in the shower?”

“Ah!” my dad said, content as if he’d just found that one missing letter in his crossword puzzle, “That has to be it! You did it! You’ve got them in thrall! My little girl is growing up.”

Getting more confused by the second, I too took up staring to one of the walls with a glassy expression. “You lost me there, dad.” 

“Thrall. Pure, instinctive siren magic. You know, in the old stories where they sung to sailors and hypnotized them so that they would jump in the water and so that the sirens could gruesomely devour them.” 

“Devour!? Dad I thought that was a myth!” 

“Well, myths usually have some truth into them. I mean, I never actually met any other sirens besides your mother so you might all be men eaters for as far as I know.”

“Dad I don’t eat sailors.” 

“I sure as hell hope you don’t. That’s not how I raised you. Oh hey, I think it’s your brother and sister. Sweeties! Guess who’s on the phone.” 

“SAAAAAAAAAR, Hey SARAH HEY HOW ARE YOU HOW IS THE CITY IS IT COOL I BET ITS COOL!!!” 

I held the phone a little further from my ear as the two of them did their best to vocally expel the lungs from their body. My, I sure as hell hoped they never figured out the whole thrall thing.

“Ah, they’re distracted, so, back to your whole siren problem there.” 

I felt my face slowly redden with an uncomfortable mix of frustration and embarrassment. “Hey by the way, if this is a siren thing, then why didn’t mom know about it! Why do you need to tell me this?”

“Darling, no bad word about your mother but you know how she was beached when she was only an infant and was adopted by fishermen? I mean, unless you’re dying to know something about boats I don’t think she is a good source of information. I HEARD THAT. I love you sweetie!” 

“So that, back on topic for a minute. Say I want to release my roommates from my thrall. How would I go on about that?”

“I have no idea to be honest.”

“What?! Dad!” 

“Hey don’t judge it’s siren magic, okay. I don’t know the specifics.”

“Uugh! Does mom know? Tell me she knows?” 

“Didn’t we just discuss this, oh wait. Ah. Your mom is looking at me with a look of mild desperation and... oh, she sort of... ran away.” 

“Dad, I’m going to be in neck deep shit if you don’t help me right now.” 

“Neck deep shit? Well good thing you can swim, eh? Sorry, that was terrible. Okay, so the one thing I know about spells like this is that at some point they just run out of energy. So You could just try to order them around until the magic is used up. How’s that for a plan?” 

“That’s, okay I guess I can do that. Thanks dad.”

“No problem dear, oh and do call once this is all over, okay? I want to know how your very first time trying a thrall went.” 

I groaned. “Bye dad.”

The line went silent and I was met with the unnatural silence of the apartment. Save for the clock slowly ticking away in the kitchen and the soft humming of the air co no sound hung in the hot, heavy air. I signed, sweeping my hand over my face and...

“Oh my god,” I jumped backwards, getting away from Jody’s face that had been right up in my face and what the heck?!?!

“You moved. Oh hooray. Okay you moved that is creepy as fuck you scary zombie seriously don’t stare at me like that o god.” 

Upon hearing this Jody did absolutely nothing. 

“Wait a sec, I ordered you too...” Ah wait, that made sense, didn’t it? After all, I’d probably sung sometime before. Except never when my fins were out.

“Hmm,” I looked at my hypnotized friend. Judging. Could I use my magic while being human? Heck, probably not. Considering it was a miracle I’d even managed to use any magic at all. Save for the shapeshifting, which was a necessity, magic always seemed way to floaty for me to even bother. 

“Jody,” I said, mentally feeling for my magic deep inside. “I want you to look out of the window.” 

Upon hearing this Jody once again did absolutely nothing. 

“Jody, to the window, now.” 

Nothing again.

“Go to the window.” 

Nope. 

“Aarrgh,” I didn’t bother resisting the urge to facepalm this time. What did dad always say. Reach for your magic deep inside? Shit like that. Deep inside where, like, in my head? Body? Inner organs? 

“Okay Jody, by the magic and ancient power of the sirens I demand you turn around right this instant and walk over to the window!”

There it was, some unphantomable vibration, a rush of... well probably adrenaline but hey it got the job done because Jody was most definitely turning around and oh no...

Yup, that was a little too much magic. 

I fortunately had plenty of time to get down on the ground as opposed to falling face first. Shape shifting was fast but fortunately not that fast. And shit really? Was that really necessary? Stupid magic. Good thing I was wearing a dress. 

“I’m so glad you two are under thrall right now,” I grumbled in the general direction of my roommates.

“Okay,” I sat up, as far as I could, at least. “Milan, check the door, make sure it’s locked!” 

Milan complied, walking over to the door in his freaky zombie state. Locked. I felt myself relax.

So another thing worth knowing about sirens in that we’re quite a bit bigger and heavier than a regular human. Here on the land there’s a limit of how big you can actually become before your legs get to weak to carry your weight and locomotion in general becomes a hassle. In the sea there’s no such restrictions. Thus the logical consequence is that is you throw a siren on the land we’re pretty much helpless. 

I shortly debated turning back, but decided against it, like this at least I could command my roommates and shape shifting was exhausting. Getting stuck in scales would really ruin my day. Especially if those two decided to spontaneously wake up. 

The couch was about six steps away. Steps, yes, but I couldn’t exactly take those now. Using my hands to literally drag myself forwards I got about a meter far before flopping face down on the floor in exhaustion. 

“Okay, Jody, Milan. I need you two to help me on the couch.” 

I’m not sure how I’d expected them to help me on the couch. In hindsight, I should have probably thought this trough. As it was, they unceremoniously grabbed me. One below my arms, and one wrapping their hands around my tail, and crudely dragged me up. I might have made some inelegant noises of protest. It got the job done, eventually. But it was still somewhat denigrating. 

“Good,” I grabbed one of the blankets and wrapped it around my tail. Logically, I knew no one was there to see me, but I still felt exposed. 

“So, Jody, I want you to get us some snacks and drink, and to plug in the wii.” Chances were it was going to be a long night. 

“Milan, you go and clean your room, and get all of your laundry out of the living room. I don’t want to keep on tripping over all of your shirts all the time.” 

The two of them walked of while I stayed on the couch. It was weird, just sitting in the living room without a disguise. Curling up self-consciously, I wrapped my arms around my tail while my fin unconsciously slapped against the couch. I heard zombie-Jody stumble around in the kitchen and wished she’d hurry up with the snacks so I’d have at least something to focus on. 

“So I was thinking.” I spoke out loud, mostly to comfort myself, “in terms of commands I suppose that the quickest way to get you out of thrall is to make you do things that are either very hard or things you just don’t want to do. I mean, that makes sense right? That has got to cost more... magical energy? Gosh I should have paid more attention to dads ramblings. I have literally no idea what I am doing.” 

Jody returned with the snacks, putting them down on out tiny table and sat down on the couch next to me, still blankly staring forwards. One of her legs brushed against my tail and I flinched away on instinct. She didn’t respond. 

“Shit this is weird.” 

I eventually decided on playing Mario kart. Ordering Jody to pick the absolutely most crappy cart she could think of and to get through rainbow road without falling. It took her almost twenty minutes but it really wasn’t as hilarious as I thought it would be. Especially because she simply didn’t respond to anything. There was no frustration on her part. She just sat there, zombied up. Falling over and over again.

At some point Milan came over and joined us on the couch as well. I gave him my controller, since I wasn’t really in the mood for gaming, and ordered him to beat his own high scores under my name. Served him right for boasting. 

Another hour and a long string of nonsensical commands later Jody and Milan were still under thrall with no signs of stopping and I was steadily growing more frustrated. What if this took like... a week? I couldn’t keep this up, not to mention we all had lectures. I wondered if I could command them to act normal. Best not to risk it.

“Okay, what command can I give you that you’ll actually not enjoy,” I pondered. “Oh hey, Milan, I want you to go into the kitchen and eat that entire pot of olives in the fridge.” If that wouldn’t weaken the spell I wasn’t sure what would.

I sighed loudly, dropping my head on the back of the couch. I’d been stuck here for over an hour now and I was itching to... well swimming would be ideal but I wouldn’t get my hopes up. But really I just wanted to get of this couch. 

“You know, I’m usually all in for game night,” I told zombie-Jody as I picked up the controller once more. “But this is just stupid. I know it’s my fault but still.” 

I fell off rainbow road again. Damn rainbow road. 

“I surely hope this won’t happen again though.” I sighed, “I’ll just have to be really careful the next time I take a shower.”

Suddenly I heard a voice from the kitchen. 

“Oh my head, what the.. uggh” it was soon followed by the sound of Milan retching. 

“Yes!” I yelled before I looked over to Jody, who was still under thrall, and mentally switched it to ‘crap’. 

“Oh dear, oh dear. Jody quick... eh. Put your hands in the air! Feet as well. Okay ehm. Make a stupid face. Now arms down and, ehh, sing the entire bohemian rhapsody for me!” 

My heart was beating furiously in my chest. I watched Jody as she started singing and I could swear I saw the emotion slowly seep back into her face. I could have cried of joy. 

Instead I focused on shapeshifting. Right fucking now. I concentrated and for one terrifyingly long second nothing happened. But just when I started to really panic I felt a shiver go down my spine, followed by the familiar sensation of having part of your bones dissolved. I breathed out in relieve. 

“Oh my, that was terrible,” Milan emerged from the kitchen just as the last of my scales receded. Jody stopped singing suddenly, shook her head in confusion and turned back to look at Milan. 

“Gosh you look terrible.” 

I looked as well and he indeed had a vague greenish tint to his skin. 

“I ate... olives.” 

“You hate olives.”

Jody turned around again, staring at the controller still clasped in her hands as if she had no idea what it was. Time to save the situation. 

“Ugh,” I groaned loudly, laying back on the couch dramatically and putting my now very human feet on the table, “I think the heat might have gotten to my head. What were we doing again?” 

“Judging by the screen I was beating your ass at Mario kart.”

“You’re taking advantage, you know I can’t stand the heat,” I wined with an exaggerated pout.

“I ate freaking olives.” 

“Yeah we got that Milan.” 

“I hate olives!” 

“We know.” 

“This is so gross.” He looked positively miserable. “Is there any normal food? Oh crap, guys it’s seven already. We don’t have dinner, do we?” 

“Aaah,” Jody said and I gazed down guiltily. “Pizza I guess?” 

Milan looked so completely done with us as we both grasped our controllers and did absolutely nothing, gazing up at him expectantly.

“You two seriously owe me,” He grumbled as he went to slip on his jacket. “Sure, I’ll go on a grocery run.” 

“Bring back some soda as well!” I yelled over my shoulder. 

“Sure thing, fishlegs.” 

Playing with Jody while she was actually awake was a lot more fun. She was very driven. Beating me over and over again, almost as if she was getting her revenge.


End file.
